[ecrea] The Literature of Remembering: tracing the limits of memoir

*Call for Papers*

*The Literature of Remembering: tracing the limits of memoir*

The genre of memoir is read so widely that it now ‘rivals fiction in 
popularity and critical esteem and exceeds it in cultural currency’ 
(Couser 2012, p.3). This call for papers urges scholars from around the 
globe to find and describe the practice of writing and reading memoir 
within their own borders as a cultural phenomenon. How does it differ 
from country to country? How has it evolved? What are the ethical 
constraints of different countries? Who are each nation's unique memoirists?

We aim to compile a comprehensive and academically entertaining snapshot 
of the genre. There is a long and deep history of memoir, most agree, 
that begins with Saint Augustine’s /Confessions/. Scholars concur that 
the contemporary surge in memoir as a favoured genre began in the 
mid-1990s, with Frank McCourt’s /Angela’s Ashes/, and it has kept 
building in momentum. Not only are well-known authors rendering their 
memoirs to acclaim, but seemingly ordinary people finding themselves in 
extraordinary circumstances, are finding an audience. Sportspeople, 
politicians, sex workers, trauma victim/survivors, are telling and 
sharing their stories as a mode of knowing the self.

/Sue Joseph, Bunty Avieson and Fiona Giles, the editors, are //seeking 
scholarly essays for this book//(of up to 300 pages) to be published in 
2017. We are hoping to work with a major international publisher towards 
this end. While we welcome papers from all countries, submissions must 
be in English./

//

*Section One: The Memoir in History: life-writing throughout the ages*

Chapters here could focus on:

·Saint Augustine

·Jean-Jacques Rousseau

·Mary MacLane and the sex memoir

·Holocaust memoir

·War memoir

*Section Two: The ethical/theoretical dimensions of memoir: political, 
fabricated, celebrity*

Chapters here might look at:

·The PR of celebrity memoir

·Consent: whose story is it?

·Memoir writing about the dead

·Competing memoir

·Is memoir literary journalism?

·Fake memoir

*Section Three: The practice of memoir writing*

Chapters here might examine:

·Parental: patriography; matriography

·Pathography: narratives of illness and death

·Mis-mem

·Sports memoir

·Personal trauma narrative

·Political memoir

·Ghosting the memoir

·Erotica: kiss and tell memoir

·Travel memoir

·Memoir and comedy

·Nobody memoirs

These subjects are neither prescriptive nor exhaustive. They merely 
indicate a possible range of topics that might create new ways of 
understanding the genre. There are clearly many other equally important 
routes to explore.

Please send 200-word chapter abstracts to Sue Joseph at 
(sue.joseph /at/ uts.edu.au) <mailto:(sue.joseph /at/ uts.edu.au)>by July 30, 2016. 
Selected contributions (5-6,000 words) will be confirmed by September 
30, 2016. First copy will be due by February 30, 2017. The editors will 
send out for peer review, then return the copy with any suggested 
changes by April 30, 2017, with the final copy deadline of *May 30, 2017*.

*Bunty Avieson*is a lecturer in the Department of Media and 
Communications at the University of Sydney, where she teaches news 
writing. A former journalist she has also published three novels, a 
novella and two memoirs. The most recent,/The Dragon’s Voice: How modern 
media found Bhutan,/ was about the year she spent in Bhutan as a media 
consultant funded by the UN.**

*Fiona Giles *is a senior lecturer in the Department of Media and 
Communications at the University of Sydney, where she teaches graduate 
courses in creative nonfiction and feature writing. Her most recent 
publications have been on profile writing, and Gonzo journalism in 
Australia, and she is currently researching Australian memoir since the 
1960s.**

*Sue Joseph*has worked as an academic, teaching print journalism at the 
University of Technology, Sydney since 1997. She now teaches journalism 
and creative writing, particularly creative long form non-fiction 
writing, in both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. She has 
written three books and is currently writing a fourth on Australian 
creative non-fiction writers. Her research interests are around 
sexuality, secrets and confession, framed by the media; ethics, trauma; 
reflective professional practice; and Australian creative non-fiction.

**


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[1] <#_ftnref1> Couser, Thomas 2012 /Memoir: An Introduction/, New York: 
Oxford University Press



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